A blank window may appear, or a window may not be correctly rendered when you start Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer on a Windows 2000 Server-based computer (888194)

SYMPTOMS

When you start Windows Explorer or Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server-based computer, a blank window may appear. Or, the window that appears may not be correctly rendered. If you resize, update, or move the window, the window appears as expected.

This behavior may occur when all the following conditions are true:

You install Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 on a computer. The computer's motherboard has multiple processor capability. However, only one processor is installed on the motherboard.
You install the update that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
328310 MS02-071: Flaw in Windows WM_TIMER message handling can enable privilege elevation
You add an additional processor, and you use Device Manager to enable the new processor on the Windows 2000-based computer.

When you use Device Manager to enable the new processor, three system files are installed. The version of these files is earlier than the version of the files that are installed with Windows 2000 Service Pack 3.

The following files are installed when you use Device Manager to enable the new processor:

Winsrv.dll
Win32k.sys
Kernel32.dll

These earlier-version files may produce instability in the Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 environment. The instability causes Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer to display the behavior that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, reapply the update that is described in the following Knowledge Base article.

328310 MS02-071: Flaw in Windows WM_TIMER message handling can enable privilege elevation

Note To avoid this issue, make sure that the computer has an operating system kernel and a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that support multiple processors. Contact your computer manufacturer for more information about multiple processor support for your computer.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior in Windows Explorer, turn off the Web View feature. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type explorer, and then click OK.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
On the General tab, click the Use Windows classic folders option in the Web View section.
Click OK, and then quit Windows Explorer.

Note This work around does not resolve this issue for Internet Explorer.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to add multiple processor support on Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

234558 How to add support for multiple processors in Windows 2000